Gee

Gee:

Before you read: Two activities I participate in are dancing and playing golf. One is on a creative while and artistic, being graceful. While golf is a sport that takes strategy and practice and can at time be frustrating.  I use my balance and flexibility from my dancing part of life in my golf because being fit, flexible, good core muscles and having balance all help when playing golf.  Also the same dedication I have in golf to get better I transfer that into my dance life because I want to be the best I can be. Lastly in golf I was a team leader and I take those skills and use them in my student teaching aspects of dance and vis versa.

Summary: Gee's article Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: is about how he discribes discourses. He explains discourses as "saying(writing) doing-being- valuing- believing combinations" that are "ways of being in the world" He refers to Discourse communities with a capital D... he talks about Dominant discourses and non dominant discourses. and he talks about how you have to be all in or nothing to be part of the discourse community.

Synthesis: Gee can be synthesized with Porter and Allen again because they both talk about discourse communities as groups of people that share common interests.  Mainly Gee is synthesized with Swales because they are both about the discourse communities. Both articles talk about the importance of participating in the group to be considered a member of the community.

Response	Quotation
This sounds like a cliche but when looking at the discourse community it is important that an individual use language that is appropriate for the group.	"Language is a misleading term it too often suggests "grammar" it is a truism that a person can know perfectly the grammar of a language and not know how to use that language. It is not just what you say, but how you say it"
This goes with what is stated in the previous quote. it is important that what you are saying relates to what you are doing. If i saw a guy sitting on a napkin at a bar while drinking down drinks and smoking i may be concerned that the man was having an identity crisis.	" If I enter my neighborhood bar and say to my drinking buddy, as I sit down "Gime a match, wouldya? while placing a napkin on the bar stood to avoid getting my newly pressed designer jeans dirty, I have said the right thing but my saying doing combination is nontheless all wrong"
In a discourse community such as a sports team you assume the identity of a member of that team. it also comes complete with a uniform to wear to associate your self with that group. and it come with the lingo that you are to use about the group and when you are with other members.	"A discourse is a sort of "identity kit" which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act talk and often write so as to take on a particular role that others will recognize."
This was something I hadnt thought of until I read it. In my own life I guess you could teach someone the dance steps but you can't make them a dancer. becoming a dancer takes much more than just knowing what steps look like.	"Therefore ironically while you can overtly teach someone linguistics, a body of knowledge, you can't teach them to be a linguist that is to use a discourse."
This would be like wanting to join a football team right before the BCS championship game and expecting to play in the game. you havent gone through the practices, the season, the bonding time with the team there for you cant be granted as a member of the discourse community.	"Discourse:  you cant be let into the game after missing the apprenticeship and be expected to have a fair shot at playing it."

MM: I think that reading gee has helped me see the discourse community of my dance studio that I talked about in my Swales response because now I see how the language is used in the studio setting. and how you have to be all in the community to be a member, if you are half way in or even just a little bit out it is hard to follow all of the changing language in the community.

Thoughts: I thought reading Gee and Swales back to back was good because they both had the same path of thought. I like Gee I thought it was thought provoking and will behelpful on our upcoming project number 3.